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abstracts
Dimitris Kollintzas: Some thoughts on the
correspondence of Byzantine modes and makams arising from the case
of Doxology in the acem asiran makam written by Parthenios Mileos in
the New Method
During my on-site research at the library of the Holy Monastery of
Saint John the Theologian in Patmos, I spotted three unknown musical
manuscripts, the contents of which I presented in a paper delivered
at the 3rd Psaltic Conference of Crete.
One of them includes two Doxologies of Parthenios Mileos
which were written using the New Method of Notation.
In this article, É undertake a partial musicological analysis
of one of these Doxologies, which is written in makam acem asiran.
Comparing this Doxology to the well-known Doxology of Chourmouzios
in echos varys concludes to their identification. In addition, É
attempt to match makam acem asiran to Byzantine music modes.
Finally, reasonable concerns regarding the identification of makams
and byzantine modes and possible confusions derived from the
specific method are raised.
Nikos A. Dontas: Operas and operettas of Greek
composers at the Greek National Opera. A first approach
The
article adheres to matters of cultural management and management of
cultural inventory in the realm of Greek opera and operetta. The aim
is to provide specific and measurable facts that will contribute to
distancing from emotional approaches as regards the contribution of
the Greek National Opera (GNO) in supporting stage works by Greek
composers. Being a result of primary research, these facts relate to
how the only opera company of Greece dealt with operas and operettas
of Greek composers, both contemporary and historical, since its
foundation in 1940 and up to 2016, and offer an obvious basis for
further research. As will be shown, quantitative results may lead to
qualitative conclusions, revealing the way in which GNO dealt over
time with Greek opera and operetta. They give evidence on whether
and to what degree GNO supported contemporary Greek composers and
the extent to which it has promoted historical heritage. The
comparison of the Greek National Opera to the Athens Festival and
the Athens Megaron (The Athens Concert Hall), two major actors of
Athenian music life who have also been active in the field of opera
and operetta, contributes to reaching further conclusions.
Zafiris Nikitas: Interartistic osmosis:
Theatre and music in the 1960s
The
article looks into the relationship between music and theatre during
the 1960s and focuses on three case studies; specifically, the
performances of Mikis Theodorakis’ The Ballad of the Dead Brother
and Manos Hatzidakis’ Street of Dreams in 1962 and Jani
Christou’s collaboration in ancient Greek tragedy performances of
Prometheus Bound in 1963 and The Persians in 1965. I
analytically examine the above case studies by focusing on their
genre-oriented, ideological and aesthetic connotations. Furthermore,
I present the hermeneutic schema of my analysis based on the
following six pillars: genre experimentation; individuals and
collectivities; popularity or eclecticism; nation and
cosmopolitanism; political and (a)political; ritual and performance.
The article concludes with a short epilogue. As I argue, music acted
as a vital means of artistic dialectics in the 1960s, leading to the
aesthetic evolution of modern Greek theatre and making music a
highly important aspect of theatre.
Panos Vlagopoulos: The wealth of descriptions or Wittgenstein and
Adorno on music: Essay before an analysis
Adorno’s extraordinary music analyses have received comparatively
little attention in the reception of his challenging oeuvre. Their
most striking feature is the fact that in them Adorno avoids the use
of a music-analytical jargon; with the possible exception of basic
music-theoretical terms which belong more to common language than to
a specific terminology, such as Schenkerian or pitch class set
analysis. Adorno’s discursive politics thus seems to converge with
central choices in Wittgenstein, even though the two philosophers
never crossed paths. Their common distrust of jargons revisits an
old philosophical trope, of which the Epicureans have been the first
ardent advocates. Wittgenstein used the difference between
Psychology and Psychoanalysis to illustrate the uniqueness of
aesthetic matters: the former, aspiring to scientific rigor, seeks
for causes on the basis of a scientific hypothesis;
the latter (exactly as is the case with Ethics, Aesthetics and
Philosophy) offers reasons on the basis of a description
or representation. In his analysis of Berg’s Piano Sonata,
op. 1, Adorno presents us with a description by means of which we
can “overlook” the whole work (in the Wittgensteinian sense of the
verb). We are thus able to comprehend “at a glance” a piece of music
in relation to which we feel caught up, charmed or even bewildered.
Apostolos Palios: 15 Little Variations for piano solo:
Violinist Nikos Skalkottas as an interpretative guide of his own
work
Although Skalkottas consciously “sacrificed” a likely full of
promise career as violin soloist for the sake of compositional
engagement, however not at any point freed himself from the creative
identity of his violinistic alter ego. This observation is
particularly noticeable (also) in his piano compositions, especially
in his atonal masterpiece 15 Little Variations, composed in
1927 during his “Berlin period” as a direct reference to Beethoven’s
equivalent 32 Variations in C minor, Wo0 80. On the one hand,
the present study puts under criticism the Skalkottian work as a
typical sample of absorption of violin and string orchestra’s
elements into the composer’s pianistic writing regarding
articulation, devices, tone color and style, aiming at showcasing an
executant approach for the pianist in view of the string player; on
the other hand, it provides a proposed interpretation of performing
the composition’s phrasing in relation to the symmetry as well as
the asymmetry of the variations.
Dimitris Kotronakis: Guitarists and composers for guitar in the 19th
and 20th centuries, in the Greek world and the Diaspora: Known and
unknown aspects of guitaristic art and literature
This paper attempts a thorough presentation of the guitar history in
the Greek world and the Greek Diaspora, from the early 19th to the
late 20th centuries. Particular emphasis is placed on the
presentation of individuals which played an important role as
performers, teachers, composers, and authors of guitar methods, as
well as on their contribution to the development of the instrument.
In addition to Greek musicians, the study includes guitarists of
Greek origin who lived and were active abroad, as well as guitarists
without Greek origin, born abroad but lived in Greece and became
Greek citizens. The article highlights the achievements of these
guitarists, as well as major events and landmarks of the Greek
guitar scene. Guitar composers are traced, forgotten compositions
and unknown musicians are documented, the peculiarity of musicians
having the double identity of being both a guitarist and a guitar
composer is analyzed, and special aspects of the art of guitar are
explored. Finally, this paper examines the influence of Andrés
Segovia on the evolution of guitar in Greece, at the critical moment
after the Second World War.
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